Sport should be EMPOWERING for women and girls
"I will never forget my first cross country season. As a 9th grader at the Bromfield School in Harvard, MA, I was the only girl on the boy’s cross country team as well as the only girl in the league. I raced in a pair of cut-off jeans and a t-shirt and finished dead last in every race. Nobody went out of their way to discourage me and now, all these years later, I am still stunned by that humble beginning. The opportunity to race was there and I grabbed it. What if I had been denied that opportunity? The NCAA now has the chance to expand racing opportunities for women by equalizing the racing distances offered. It’s well past time to get this change enacted.”
Lynn Jennings, Olympian
Bronze medalist in the Women's 10,000m at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. World indoor record in the 5000m run in 1990. Nine-time champion of the USA Cross Country Championships and winner of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships three times in 1990, 1991 and 1992.
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We are asking the NCAA to mandate equality of competition for Cross Country by 2025. The NCAA will be sending out a survey to all NCAA Div. I, II, and III Cross Country runners in the fall of 2024. We need to get the message out that NCAA collegiate runners deserve equal distance races! What can you do?
Coaches, please host equal distance races.
Athletes, please ask your coaches to support this change.
Everyone, please spread the word. If you support this cause, please advocate for the importance of equality in Cross Country.
Equality by 2025.
It’s beyond ridiculous that men & women don’t compete at the same distances in collegiate sports.
— Neal Henderson, Olympic Coach 2012 (London) & 2016 (Rio de Janeiro)
Women and Men are ready to race equal distances!
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